


The Flame

by SivValkyrie



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Dumb Jock Adora, F/F, Memories, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Shower Sex, Wet Dream
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:48:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28115679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SivValkyrie/pseuds/SivValkyrie
Summary: "I can't believe you're gone/You were the first, you'll be the last." -The Flame, Cheap TrickAdora and Catra are getting used to their new lives without each other. It's grief, plain and simple, but its the way things are now. They can't stop wondering what their lives would be like if things had gone differently, or if they'd just figured out their feelings a little sooner.Just a big Gay Yearning fic, formerly a oneshot where Catra remembers a moment with Adora in the showers. Contains flashbacks, and some NSFW moments- though some chapters will be SFW. Switches between Adora-centric and Catra-centric chapters.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 49





	1. A Late Night Shower

_The bright, fluorescent lights of the barracks at night really irritated Catra. Every day is a long day, full of sweat, tears and sometimes blood- not even including combat training. Combat training was honestly the easiest part. Math class was what sucked. Catra sighed, blinking harshly as the motion activated shower lights turned on, before looking around her like usual to make sure she was alone._

_Technically, she was supposed to shower before evening rations like everyone else. But no one wanted her around for post-meal recreation activities like arm wrestling, so she took that opportunity to spend some time alone. She liked it that way- she looked different from all the other Etherians- the fur, the claws… They’d probably laugh at her. She’d been doing this as long as she could remember and no one really cared._

_The shower water hissed on, and Catra jumped and bit her tongue to avoid screaming as the cold water hit her. The Horde is cheap, but not cheap enough to ditch bacteria-slaying hot water. It would just be a second before it warmed up. She stood there, shivering with arms wrapped around herself as the door to the bedroom creaked open._

_“Ah, occupied!” Catra shouted. The water was warm but the dry hair on her back stood on end. It wasn’t the end of the world and she wasn’t going to be in any trouble for showering, but still…_

_“It’s just me, dummy,” Adora called from the other side of the bathroom half-wall. She was in the bedroom area, stripping off her outfit. She tossed the worn articles in her hamper and grabbed a fresh one from the drawer under her bed, carrying it to the showers. “Sorry, I was busy with Shadow Weaver during shower time. Mind if I join you?”_

_Catra swallowed, nodding a little. Adora was her best friend. It shouldn’t matter, right? Adora hadn’t said anything. It’s not that Adora was the problem here anyways._

_She fixed her gaze on the wall, opening the shampoo with a loud_ crack! Dumping a good amount into her hands, _she turned around to face the room, and tipped her head back to soak her hair._

_“Having a good night? I miss you at ping-pong like, all the time. You’d be good at it.” Adora started soaping herself up and Catra made the mistake of turning her head to answer her._

_She’d seen Adora naked before. Everyone in their room had. No one really gives a shit in close quarters. But she’s never been this close to her, under the bright lights, just one empty shower between them- “Ah, yeah. But I doubt anyone would want me on their team.”_

_The blonde chuckled. “You gotta stop that ‘woe-is-me’ stuff. You know I’d want you there,” she smiled, watching Catra scrub shampoo into her scalp. “Do you ever scratch yourself when you do that? Doesn’t it hurt?”_

_For a second, the cat-woman forgot to feel nervous. “Nah, I kinda put the pads of my fingers on my head instead of my nails. It’s hard to explain if you haven’t actually done it.” She rinsed the now-sudsy shampoo out of her hair, before wringing it out._

_“Cool, cool.” Adora went back to minding her own business, starting to lather up her hair too._

_Catra tried to grab the soap off a shelf, and it hit the floor seconds later._

That’s when she woke up. Catra sat up, gasping as she gripped the blankets of her cushy force captain bed. For a second, she was expecting Adora to be there, like they should have been- had she not run off to play dress-up with the enemy.

The last of the memory wasn’t that interesting. Catra grabbed the soap and finished up, before awkwardly dressing, trying to avoid Adora’s gaze. She’d spent the rest of that night wondering whether Adora was attractive to her, or if she just wanted to look like her. She’d probably give anything to have sleek, pretty hair that she could put into a stupid poofy ponytail like that.

The answer had come two weeks after Adora had left them. The distance made her hollow, as much as she hated to admit it. She hated to admit she would sell her soul just for one more minute with her.

“Don’t fucking cry, loser,” Catra mumbled to her empty private quarters, laying back down as she tried not to cry.

It didn’t work. The floodgates opened as she imagined Adora hadn’t just toweled off and left that night. She wished Adora had told her she was beautiful just the way she was, like she needed to hear.

In her head, she could picture Adora reaching for the fallen soap with a smirk, making that awful joke no one really even likes. Catra probably wouldn’t have paid attention to her words, only the close proximity between them as their bodies and lips grew closer…

Catra reached down. She wasn’t supposed to do this, but it was getting unbearable now. She slid a hand into her shorts, inhaling sharply as her fingers brushed against her womanhood. She thought about Adora wrapping her arms around her, hot water cascading over them as they kissed- and she started to move her middle finger against her entrance.

“O-oh jeez.” Catra gripped the blanket with her other hand, and she finally stopped crying as she imagined Adora’s hands roaming her body.

 _“You don’t have to be shy around me, I love you,”_ Adora probably would have said, and she would have held the back of Catra’s head as she leaned into her shoulder. “ _I’ve got you.”_

_Adora grabbed Catra’s thigh with her free hand, lifting it around her hip as she leaned Catra back against the wall. She’d start to grind against her feline-friend, both of them moaning softly as they tried not to make too much noise. The water would probably run cold but they’d forget about it as they kissed, Adora’s lips finding their way down to her neck._

That was all Catra’s brain could conjure up as her body seized- she’d found her clit and it was over not too long after that. In the hazy aftermath, she caught her breath and tried one more time to fall back to sleep, hoping she wouldn’t dream of Adora again.

At least she had her own private shower now that she was force captain.


	2. When Life Gives You Lemons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora has no idea what's even going on anymore. She's just trying her best, okay?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was kind of all over the place, but so is my brain.

Adora looked around at the wreckage she’d caused in one of Brightmoon’s villages. _Fuck._ She was supposed to save people, not blow their houses to bits. She was trying to save the citizens from bots and fleets of Horde soldiers, but what good is she if everything got destroyed in the process?

“Hey,” Glimmer panted. “At least it’s my kingdom they tore through. We can cover the damages and get some volunteers to help out.”

She nodded, letting She-Ra disappear. Now back in her normal form, she noticed some aches and pains from battle that she hadn’t a second ago. The adrenaline wore off, maybe.

_“Hey Adora.” Catra spat, leaping from a tree and launching her feet at She-Ra’s face._

_Our hero felt her jaw almost pop out of its sockets as she hit the ground, grunting as she braced her hands on the grass to push herself back up for the fight. “Shut up. I’ve got more important things to do.”_

_That made the cat-woman angry. Catra was already sitting on her chest, grabbing her bruised jaw and making the most uncomfortable eye contact anyone’s probably ever had. “That’s insulting. Two weeks ago I was your world, or at least, that’s what you wanted me to think.”_

_Sharp claws bit into the blonde’s flesh, just a little. Catra could totally cut an artery and win this right now. That’s when she realized Catra couldn’t do it. “It’s not too late to join me,” She said, reaching up to nowhere in particular to try and end the fight here and now._

_“Shut up! You know better than anyone we’re doing the right thing. You just want to cause chaos with your stupid rebels.” Adora’s hand on her would have been all she wanted. She-Ra’s was foreign. A threat. She smacked it away, and by then it was too late for peace._

_In a split second, Catra was in the air. She-Ra had brought her legs up and used them to kick under her foe, shoving her off. Then she was on her feet- but by then, Catra had jumped into the trees._

_“Coward,” she shouted, looking around at the sheer chaos she missed. Catra was just her distraction._

Adora finally felt the weight of the situation catch up with her. She actually left her best friend behind. It stung, more than the claw marks on her jaw and the shoe print on her face. She-Ra wasn’t just a hero. She was a coping mechanism. The more Adora helped people, the less she felt like she left the Horde for nothing.

“Agh,” Adora grunted, trying not to scream as she began walking with the others back to the palace. She could see it in the distance, through a light layer of fog. It was so weird that a castle was her house now. “It’s fine,” she tried to say before stumbling forward into a slow walk.

“Hey, do you want a piggyback ride? It’s not too far, hop on,” Bow said in his usually cheery voice, slowing Adora down. “I don’t want you getting hurt. Well, more hurt. That’s just more wounds for us to patch up later, and you know how Glimmer and I feel about extra work.”

“What’s a piggyback ride?”

Bow and Glimmer had to pick their jaws up off the ground. “What?” They both shouted.

“It’s totally fun, Bow and I give them to each other all the time!”

“Whoa- uh, I know you guys have a thing, but I don’t think you guys and I are close enough for-“

Bow cut her off, his voice cracking as he tried to steer the conversation back on track. “That’s not what it means!” He cleared his throat. “It’s where someone carries you on their back, like so. Come on up, Glimmer!”

Glimmer hopped on Bow’s back, wrapping her arms and legs around him. “See? One of us can carry you home like this.”

“Ohhhh,” Adora mused. “You mean Pick Pack? That’s how we were supposed to carry injured soldiers back in the Horde. I’d never been deployed but I had training in it.” She shrugged, following it up with, “Sure.”

Bow leaned over, letting Adora wrap her arms and legs around him. He held on to her knees, and they wandered back home.

* * *

In the stillness of her bedroom, with the evening sun peeking in, Adora finally came crashing down from the high of rebellion. It was thrilling for the first couple of weeks, when their were things to do and learn and see, and she was doing all she could to prove her loyalty. Now she had so much free time.

Everything was so peaceful, and silent, save for the water fountain in her room. Those were standard, apparently. “Heh,” Adora chuckled to herself. “Funny. I’d never even seen fresh water until I came to Brightmoon. It was always in tanks and pipes and bottles.”

There are lots of things she’d never seen before. Everything in the fruit basket by her bed was new too. That stuff is food, right? “Stupid, why would they give you stuff to eat that isn’t food?”

She took a round, yellow thing out and ran her hands over its textured, waxy surface. Hm. Kinda shiny. She bit into it, her teeth barely scratching its protective peel. It tasted weird, but under one of her bite marks she could see a juicier looking fruit underneath. “Ohhh, it’s like those present things Glimmer told me about. I’m supposed to unwrap it.

So she did, and she bit into the-

“MMF! FUCK!”

It was so sour Adora dropped the thing, tears streaming down her face. “Catra! Poison! I think Shadow Weaver gave us another poison test-“ And then reality settled back in. The reality that the only poison was the lies she’d been fed for twenty years in the Horde. The reality that there was no more Catra to laugh about her stupidity.

She felt bad for the little fruit. She picked it back up off the floor and pulled out a slice, sticking her tongue out to lick it like the idiot she was. Her brain said _sour_ , but her heart said sometimes new things hurt, even if you can’t tell what’s good or bad anymore.


End file.
